REVIEW Pop philosopher relates theories on cereal, music

The author's first book was a defense of '80s heavy metal.
By ERIC R. DANTON
HARTFORD COURANT
"Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto," by Chuck Klosterman (Scribner, $23)
He redeemed heavy-metal bands in his first book. Now Chuck Klosterman deconstructs breakfast cereal, basketball rivalries, Internet porn and Billy Joel in the follow-up, "Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto."
Klosterman's 2001 debut, "Fargo Rock City: A Heavy Metal Odyssey in Rural North Dakota," was part memoir and part defense of the 1980s hair-metal scene he grew up admiring from the distant environs of Wyndmere, N.D.
Now a senior writer for Spin, a music magazine, Klosterman devotes "Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs" to essays on other topics whose cultural significance needs further exploration.
Basketball rivalry
Klosterman lives in a world where the '80s rivalry between the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers serves as a metaphor for society: where a person's allegiance sums up everything you need to know about how they think. The Lakers, tightly controlled from the top by coach Pat Riley, were the basketball equivalent of Democrats in the late '60s, Klosterman writes, while the Celtics, he writes, "were totally GOP" because of their tendency toward self-reliance and desire to "avoid anything taxing -- they wanted to avoid taxes."
It's to Klosterman's credit as a pop philosopher and as a writer that such outrageous claims actually seem plausible. Although he occasionally bogs down in his own cleverness, he expresses his thoughts clearly through writing that has become tighter and more focused since "Fargo Rock City." He also demonstrates an unconventional and often witty way of thinking about the salient features of American culture.
Deconstructing cereal
Consider his treatise on breakfast cereals, which feature advertisements that deny the scrumptious sugar-bombs to certain characters: the Trix rabbit, Sonny the Cocoa Puffs bird, a leprechaun worried about theft of his Lucky Charms. Thus, children learn to want what others can't have.
"They're the first step in the indoctrination of future hipsters: Cereal commercials teach us that anything desirable is supposed to be exclusionary," he writes.
Several of the essays are about music. In "Toby Over Moby," he explains the unwavering popularity of what he calls "Wal-Mart country" music.
While rock and hip-hop are concerned with introducing new ideas into the music, mainstream country artists reflect the way their fans think about life.
"As a consequence, the organic themes in Wal-Mart country filter up from its audience. They actually come from the people shopping in Wal-Mart. And when those Wal-Mart shoppers eventually hear their own ideas on the radio, it somehow seems fresh," he writes.